Peter Goplerud is the dean and a sports law professor at Florida Coastal School of Law.
An Iowa native and son of an obstetrician-gynecologist, Goplerud came to Coastal Law in 2004 after serving as dean of Drake University Law School.
Before that he was dean of the University of Oklahoma College of Law and prior to that was dean, associate dean and professor at Southern Illinois University School of Law, where he served for 12 years.
Goplerud also has been on the faculty at the University of Akron School of Law and a visiting professor at Saint Louis University School of Law and New York Law School. He began his career as a law clerk for Justice David Prager of the Supreme Court of Kansas and has been “of counsel” to four private law firms, primarily for consultation on sports law matters.
Ponte Vedra Beach residents, Goplerud and his wife, attorney Mariette Brodeur, have two daughters, 17-year-old Zoe and 13-year-old Ava.
Goplerud, who earned his law degree 37 years ago, said he briefly considered a career in medicine during “an errant semester as an undergraduate” and refocused on law after “a really horrible experience” with chemistry, physics and calculus.
He began to think about a law career at the age of 12 or 13 and became the first in his family to take that path. “I was the first lawyer that anybody knows about,” he said.
At Florida Coastal School of Law, Goplerud said it’s called Florida Coastal or Coastal Law, not FCSL.
The school was founded 15 years ago and its first campus was along Beach Boulevard near the Hart Expressway.
Goplerud said the school seriously considered a Downtown location, but “ultimately there were some considerations that caused us to focus on the current site.”
At the time, there were parking and security issues Downtown that were not easily resolvable, he said.
As the school marks 15 years of existence, it also celebrates five years since it took over the Baymeadows area building in August 2006.
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